Overmatched and Overperforming: Unequal Access to High Ability Classrooms and the Reproduction of Inequality

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Access to Education

Abstract

Privileged families frequently attempt to subvert seemingly meritocratic education structures in order to gain advantages for their children. This is certainly the case for mismatch in college admission: while originally a criticism of affirmative action, recent research shows that all students, no matter their socioeconomic status, benefit from overmatching, but that high status students are most likely to be overmatched. Because of both structured and informal sorting of students into classrooms during primary and secondary education, overmatching takes during primary and secondary school. Our research uses administrative data from Indiana and multilevel models to identify which students tend to be overmatched in 5th-8th grade classrooms and the effects of overmatching on math test scores. We find that privileged students are more likely to be overmatched, that overmatching benefits all students, and overmatching has a negative effect on peers. As a result, the subverted meritocracy of class placement perpetuates schooling inequality.

Authors

• Brian R. Fitzpatrick, University of Notre Dame

• Sarah Mustillo, University of Notre Dame